Lost in the Black Hole of Seddon or Clarence
Trip Start
Jun 05, 2007
1
24
82
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
Seddon,
New Zealand
Saturday, December 15, 2007
From the sounds we headed south a worked for the most non-organic Wwoof host in NZ for a week, and then down to Seddon, half an hour south of wine country to the Judges. The plan being to spend a week or two working off a rafting trip which Ben Judge was going to take us on. This we did, and the week flew by with their two children to keep us occupied. The following Wednesday we decided it was time to cash in our hours, and decided to hop on the river with the crew Ben was taking down.
A four hour drive up to Hamner Springs set us up for a 4 day, 220 km rafting drip, down most of the Clarence River
Day One
. The first day was mostly calm, with lots of sun, and Amanda and I were helping Ben's oldest son, Jordan, bring the oar rig, loaded with all the luggage, across some of the more shallow bits. Not that we minded getting out of the boat, the water was pristine, and it was as hot as it gets in this part of the world. Towards the end of the first day we came upon the Chute, which is the most famous of the rapids on the river, and with it came some excitement. As the first boat went through, they became stuck on a large rock wall to the left of the rapid, and so our boat held off in an eddy before the rapid. Ben came hurtling down the river, half because he wanted to stir up some excitement, and bumped us our of the eddie, and headed into the rapid with the other paddle boat. Try as we might we couldn't keep out of the flow, and just as Jordan exclaimed, "We're going in!" Ben seemed to have jumped right out the back of the boat as they hit the big rock smack in the middle of the rapid. It didn't take long for his boat to flip, ejecting all of it's passengers, and some cargo that was not fastened down. We approached the rapid seconds later, and Jordan jumped out onto the rock to try and stop our boat from running the fallen passengers over, though to no avail, and Amanda and I were left alone to negotiate the rapid, which we did, and then pulled into an eddy to wait for our captain. While Ben collected his boat and passengers, we headed down river first to collect the myriad of possesions, which were quickly sinking to the bottom
Camp, Day One
. All in all, they only lost a fishing rod. Why they kept everything in a backpack I will never know?!?The rest of the day went off without a hitch, though the scenery through the gorge was like no other. You could literally see the layers of earth that had been pushed up to form the peaks surrounding you. These mountains are some of the newest geological features in the world, and it shows. We made camp on a beach on the side of the river, and feasted on crayfish (lobster), paua (abalone), and gunnard with corgettes (zuchinni).
The rest of the trip was as beautiful as the first day, with equal amounts of sun and warmth. Every deep pool we floated by, one of us would jump in for a quick swim. One of the days we had a long lunch near a good jump rock, and a few of us took advatage from differing heights. The food was incredible, inluding my peach cobbler, thank you very much. But seriously we lucked in on one hell of a trip, and all for barter. The last two days there were more rapids, and into view came the snowy peaks of the inner Kaikoura Range, folding in and out of view behind the nearer ranges.
Once we got to the mouth and had everything put away, Ben, Jordan, Amanda, and I went for a dive down the coast towards Kaikoura, and caught ourselves some more Paua, Crays, and Butterfish
Camp, Morning 2
. The water was so calm, clear, and just beautiful. A far cry from what we dove in just before the trip, in which I cut my feet up on the rocks. After our trip the plan was to head to Nelson, but we were held up just relaxing, and doing a bit more work. The day before we were to head North, Sandy and Ben found us some payed work on a vineyard in Marlbourough, so we took it, and commenced to work for the next few weeks. And vineyard work is not easy. Completely repetitious, and likes to work small muscle groups that you don't tend to use in daily life. Between four of us, we planted 10,000 vines in three days. Well, five of us if you count the owner.
All in all we spent a month or so coming and going from the Judges either in Seddon or in Clarence, enjoying ourselves all the time. They became like a family to us down here.
